43 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Levadiakos lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The bid was some way short and Levadiakos did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad4 Jun 2029
Marios Vichos falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Levadiakos has been clear about where Giannis Sourdis stands, which is more than many ever get.
17 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Christos Papadopoulos and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Nikos Papanikolaou has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The offer from Mlada Boleslav for Nicholas Gioacchini was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
OFI have gone to Makedonikos with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Aitor Cantalapiedra was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
$150.0K on the table at PAS Giannina. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Add another name to the list: Septemvri have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dimitris Theodoridis. The answer from OFI has not changed — yet.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at OFI has been clear about where Giannis Theodosoulakis stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
SquadWords at OFI training over how hard people work
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” OFI have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Thiago Nuss and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Apr 2029
João Silva falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ilija Vukotić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and OFI have no good answer.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Alexandros Maskanakis has written the date down.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Silva is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Zean Dalügge and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
Thiago Nuss is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nobody at OFI will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.25 for the rest of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Silva is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Giorgos Kanellopoulos had OFI level again within 1 minutes, and Iraklis never got to play with a lead at all.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 59 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Mbunga Kimpioka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nikola Neychev was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at OFI, and 6 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at OFI will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Asteras in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. OFI know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at OFI. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
In brief
The dugoutRoger Colomina asks for a word with the manager
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Krešimir Krizmanić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Mbunga Kimpioka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Triantafyllos Pasalidis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A mark of 7.81, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout9 Oct 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Spyridon Tzolis, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 84 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Thiago Nuss and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Mbunga Kimpioka is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Spyridon Tzolis after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Sokratis Dioudis’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and OFI needing him to play as if none of it matters.
The words a physio says slowly. 58 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 121 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. OFI have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Thiago Nuss and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicholas Gioacchini is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at OFI, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eddie Salcedo signs something — a contract at OFI or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
91 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer from Fehervar for Giannis Theodosoulakis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and OFI go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Thiago Nuss and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Olympiacos wanted more than $420.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Squad26 Jun 2028
João Silva falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
OFI have made the call to River Plate. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Squad26 Jun 2028
5 new faces, and OFI are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicholas Gioacchini is on it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutJoão Silva asks for a word with the manager
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. OFI will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giannis Theodosoulakis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
18 games and 1 goals away from here, and a man the manager did not have last summer. The loan did what loans are supposed to do and almost never do.
Squad29 May 2028
6 new faces, and OFI are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at OFI will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout29 May 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikos Marinakis's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The words a physio says slowly. 67 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason OFI will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giannis Theodosoulakis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at OFI, and it is not being withdrawn.
Thiago Nuss and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad1 May 2028
Eddie Salcedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
99 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 93 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Nicholas Gioacchini is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Sokratis Dioudis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout3 Apr 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Nikos Marinakis's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around OFI they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Thiago Nuss and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Eddie Salcedo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A performance of 8.20 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad6 Mar 2028
5 new faces, and OFI are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Thiago Nuss was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Eddie Salcedo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Nicholas Gioacchini had OFI level again within 3 minutes, and Panetolikos never got to play with a lead at all.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Thiago Nuss is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 22. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
5‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
A brace, and Eddie Salcedo takes the afternoon — 8.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eddie Salcedo provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aitor Cantalapiedra provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Giannis Theodosoulakis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around OFI the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Silva was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Nicholas Gioacchini and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. OFI lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at OFI this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Silva is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.99 on the card, and the OFI support went home talking about one name.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Spyridon Tzolis, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nicholas Gioacchini provided it, and the 8.12 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at OFI is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Roger Colomina has just signed for OFI, and for once the answer mattered.
Thiago Nuss and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Eddie Salcedo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.